I Will Take You
Today’s Scripture Selection: Exodus 6:7
What a beautiful promise it is:
“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.”
One of our most fundamental needs is to be loved and to be accepted.
This was especially true of a people who had long ago been the recipients of either love or acceptance. They were merely a commodity; a possession to used and abused and, if necessary, discarded.
Israel was not yet a nation with a king. They were without prophets or priests of note. They were slaves, and nothing more.
Then, Moses came, back to the land of Pharaoh from which he had earlier fled as a fugitive.
He had news – wonderful, life giving, and life restoring news.
God had seen their misery, God cared, and God was ready to intervene.
Then the promise: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.”
History was made that day, even before the first miracle, the first plague, the crossing of the Red Sea, the exodus to the Promised Land. History was made, and the world was forever changed, because God “took” the people as His own.
God still is reaching out, in similar ways, to take those whom He loves under His wing. He is still offering release from captivity and freedom of bondage. He is still taking others as His people, and offering to be their God.
The only question is do they hear His call? Do we?
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By Paul Simrell
The Reverend Paul W. Simrell has served for over thirty years in a variety of congregational and institutional settings. He is a recognized minister with standing in the Virginia region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada and is nationally endorsed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for specialized ministry in both pastoral counseling and chaplaincy. Ordained in 1982, he has served congregations in Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Virginia. He currently serves as the pastor of Elpis Christian Church, a small, historic congregation located just a few miles west of Richmond, Virginia. Elpis is the Greek word meaning “expectant hope.” He also serves on the associate clinical staff of the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care, Richmond, Virginia, both as a pastoral counselor and a ministerial assessment specialist, specializing in executive, clergy and relationship coaching. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Lexington Theological Seminary and has done advanced clinical training in chaplaincy and pastoral counseling at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, Children’s Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas and the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care in Richmond, Virginia. He is a Certified Pastoral Counselor, an ACPE Practitioner, and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. He is a Certified Facilitator of the Prepare-Enrich relationship assessment and skills-building program and served as a volunteer chaplain for over twenty years with the CJW Medical Center campuses in Richmond, Virginia. His avocational interests include playing the piano and drawing. He is very happily married to his wife Elizabeth Yeamans Simrell, a free-lance writer, who is also a Certified Facilitator for the Prepare-Enrich program.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
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